Scientific American Supplement, No. 388, June 9, 1883 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 147 pages of information about Scientific American Supplement, No. 388, June 9, 1883.

Scientific American Supplement, No. 388, June 9, 1883 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 147 pages of information about Scientific American Supplement, No. 388, June 9, 1883.

Several influences combine to maintain the circulation of the blood.  The pumping action of the heart and the affinity of the blood for the walls of the capillary vessels require to be assisted by the motion both of the body as a whole and of its parts in order to keep the circulation flowing equably through every tissue.  Therefore muscular action and the resulting bodily motion play a very important part in maintaining the general and local blood circulation.  During the contraction of a muscle, the blood current flowing through it is, for the time being, retarded, but when relaxation occurs the blood flows into its vessels more freely than if no momentary cessation had taken place.  When the body or any of its parts is deprived of motion, the blood circulation stagnates, and the nutrition, general or local, as the case may be, promptly becomes impaired.  This is specially true of the uterus.  Gentle but constant motion is absolutely essential to keep up a healthy uterine blood circulation.  Nature has provided for the automatic performance of all the ceaseless internal motions that are necessary to the continuance of life and the preservation of health; thus the heart beats, the respiratory muscles act, the stomach executes a churning motion during gastric digestion, the intestines pass on their contents by worm-like contractions, automatically without our supervision and without causing fatigue, being under the control of the sympathetic system of nerves chiefly.  It is equally true, but not so well recognized, that the previously described motions that are committed to the pelvic organs from the respiratory apparatus are absolutely necessary to the continued health of the uterus and its appendages.  But the womb is not under the control of the voluntary muscles, therefore it cannot be directly moved by them, nor are its necessary motions influenced by the sympathetic system of nerves as are the heart, stomach, and intestines, etc., but it is fortunately under the indirect but positive control of involuntary muscles that never, as long as breathing continues, cease their work.  Nature has thus made ample provision to keep the uterus in automatic motion.  As before stated, the natural ceaseless heavings of the lungs, chest, and diaphragm, aided by the muscles inclosing the abdomen, have the duty assigned them of communicating automatic motion to the uterus and the other contents of the pelvis.  When the diaphragm descends from A to B, and the lungs are filled with air, the uterus sinks in the pelvic cavity in obedience to the downward pressure from above, as before stated; the circulation through the uterus is then for a moment retarded, but the next instant, when the lungs are emptied of air and the diaphragm rises, the blood flows forward more freely than if it had not been momentarily obstructed.  Ample provision has thus been made to maintain a healthy circulation through the uterus.

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Scientific American Supplement, No. 388, June 9, 1883 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.